A/N: Have you ever drank the blood of the pure hearted? I must say... It's delicious.

The 16 year old red eyed, black hedgehog, known as Shadow, a guy who keeps a calm head, was conversing with an ivory hedgehog, who had yellow eyes, near the entrance to a town a little ways away from the Sorean town. Shadow was wearing grey pants and a black shirt. "Are you sure you should be going alone. That guy in the cloak might get the drop on you."

Shadow scoffed. "I can handle myself Silver. Just stay out of trouble. You should head back. I'll be ok." Silver was wearing a green shirt and blue pants. He's 14 years old and he always looked up to Shadow. Silver was actually from a ruined future, and his father had sent him to the past with his dying breath when Silver was only a child. The first person he opened up to was Shadow, and next was Amy. He's been very close to the 2 ever since.

"Alright." Silver felt assured and went home. On the way, he ran into Amy She was wearing her signature outfit of a red dress, red shoes, and a red hair band. "Oh hey. Where are you off to?" Amy was a 12 year old pink hedgehog with green eyes. She dreamed of a hero who would sweep her off of her feet.

"Oh, I'm going to meet up with the girls. Princess Jasmine wants to see us."

"Ok." Silver went on his way, while Amy was off to the most magnificent house in the neighborhood. It's not a castle, like you'd expect, but there is a very good reason for that. The Soreans are a race that has long been feared and unjustly wronged. This clan wants to break down the barriers keeping Soreans from joining the normal society, so they live here in secret, right next door to Station Square.

Amy arrived to the town center to find an 18 year old, and rather curvaceous, white bat with green eyes, and 2 8 year olds. A brown raccoon with blue eyes, and an apricot rabbit with brown eyes.

"Hey girls! How are you?" Amy asked.

"We're great Amy." The rabbit's name is Cream. She's very sweet and innocent. She wore her orange dress and shoes.

"Yeah! We're ace, sheila!" The raccoon is Marine. She uses a lot of slang and is very adventurous. She was wearing her green shirt, black pants, and green/orange shoes.

The bat's called Rouge. She loves jewels. She had a black skin tight body suit on, with white boots, and a heart emblem on both boots and her body suit. "Now, let's get going."

It was noon. Shadow was walking around Station Square. He was close to city hall, when he happened to look into a burger shop. He saw 3 humans talking. They seemed to be about Silvers age, but being humans, they're quite a bit taller than Shadow. He was feeling a bit hungry, so he decided to walk in.

"I'm telling you, a powerful mind should be held above all else. You need to spend more time reading and less time doing karate with your butler." A boy with brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a red shirt with gold buttons, and black pants. was arguing with another boy who Shadow assumed to be his twin. He was wearing a red, white, and yellow shirt and blue pants.

Shadow walked up to the counter and asked for a cheeseburger and fries, with Cola. "No need. I'm as smart as I need to be. I need to exercise my body. And you should do the same."

As Shadow was waiting for his order, he looked over towards their table and laid eyes on the third human. A blonde girl who had enchanting blue eyes. She was wearing a blue dress. "Thorndyke, your food is ready." The boy who practiced karate got up and got their food. The girl took a salad and diet cola off of the tray.

"Why can't you two agree to disagree and move on? Your like those brothers in Jake's video game who live on separate floors of the same house."

"But I don't use a spear, and Ivo doesn't have a library in his room."

"While I do agree that building an android is completely different than reading all day, what's the difference between karate and swinging a spear around like a mad man?"

"Karate means empty hand you dolt. And it's for self defence."

The two went on and on with this argument, but Shadow wasn't paying attention anymore. He was thinking about the blonde.

"Excuse me. Mr. Ultima? Your meals here." The waitress snapped Shadow out of his trance.

"Oh… thanks." Shadow began to eat to hide his embarrassment. He began listening to the humans' conversation again.

"Maria, who do you think has a more balanced lifestyle? Me or Chris?"

"Dude, she's our cousin. She can't choose between us."

"Actually, I think your argument is pointless. You are both good at what you do, so what's the problem?"

The two boys thought about the question, but were coming up flat. Then, Ivo noticed someone at the counter. "Hey, Maria, I think that hedgehog's staring at you." Maria turned her head, but Shadow had already turned his head away to hide his blush. He ate his food hoping he could play it off, but he could hear footsteps behind him.

"Hello. My name is Maria Robotnik. What's yours?"

Shadow turned around and saw her face. She was beautiful. "Umm… I'm Shadow Ultima."

"These are my cousins, Ivo Robotnik and Chris Thorndyke."

"Hey."

"Hi."

Shadow responded similarly.

"You look like you're almost done eating. would you like to accompany us to Twinkle Park?" Maria asked. Shadow blushed even more.

"I thought that place was for couples."

Chris cut in. "It's not mainly for couples, but there is a section of the park devoted to romance. And we have to meet up with our grandfather, so we can't go today."

"When did grandfather call for us?"

"Ivo's on the phone with him right now."

"Oh, well bye Shadow." Maria waved, and Shadow waved back.

"She's an angel."

Amy's group was entering the mansion, and they greeted the maids and butlers and went straight to Jasmine's room. She was a pink bat with green eyes, and she was wearing a red dress.

"I'm so happy to see you, dear friends." She turned around and clapped her hands. "I would like to go on a picnic!"

Amy and Rouge shared a worried look. "But your highness…" Jasmine cut them off.

"Enough with the formalities. Just call me Jasmine."

"Jasmine… you know about the recent attacks right? We're not sure a picnic is such a good idea."

"Oh lighten up you two. I'll be careful. Now come on. Let's go!" Jasmine walked out of the room and to the kitchen. "Also, father's not here right now, so feel free to let loose.

Disclaimer: I don't own many of these characters. I own like 2. And one of them was only mentioned in this chapter. The other is Jasmine. Everyone else is property of Sega.

Also, I'm hesitant to actually post this with that creepy authors note at the beginning. That alone might bump this story up to M. I'm thinking of doing that anyway, but still. Well, if I change it, then you probably won't see this message either, now will you?